Vancouver Canucks' goalie Ryan Miller makes a glove save against the San Jose Sharks during the third period of a pre-season NHL hockey game in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday October 2, 2016.DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS

MILLER (JUST IN) TIME

The National Hockey League schedule has always looked like it was made on a dare. No team ever receives its 82-game agenda in July and declares: “Wow, this is awesome. It totally makes sense.”

At the extreme Pacific Northwest outpost of the NHL, the Canucks have always suffered more than most teams. So while they’re playing their sixth game in nine nights today in the Anaheim Ducks’ home-opener, it’s not exactly new territory for them.

Yes, they’ll be a little fatigued playing their second game in less than 24 hours after rallying from three goals down before losing 4-3 in a shootout Saturday to the Los Angeles Kings in a three-hour marathon. But the return of starting goalie Ryan Miller could be a re-energizing factor.

Miller hasn’t played since stopping all 25 shots he faced in a 2-1 shootout win against the Calgary Flames last Saturday, which seems about a month ago. So he’s still perfect in the second week of the Canucks’ season.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said before this morning’s sparse, optional skate in Orange County. “And I did it without getting a shutout.

“It was exciting to get in the first game and I want to keep that energy going. It was frustrating to sit out, but I think it was the right thing. Marky has played strong hockey and it’s time to get back in.”

Jacob Markstrom, who had an excellent week but was unhappy with the goals he allowed Saturday, started the last four games after Miller strained his groin making a shootout save against Johnny Gaudreau in the Canucks’ opener.

Miller noted it is “weird” that the Canucks didn’t play their first game until Day 4 of the regular season and that the league “condensed the condensed schedule” on them.

But he is obviously rested, which is when he has performed best for the Canucks.

“The strength of our start has been the structure and how well we have stayed in the structure. We’ve been rewarded for it. We’re not going to get that reward every night, but you’ve got to take it when you can get it. Can we stay in the system? Can we keep it so every line has a chance to be effective?”

We’ll find out.

Los Angeles Kings’ Anze Kopitar, center, of Slovenia, moves the puck between Vancouver Canucks’ Ben Hutton, left, and Loui Eriksson, of Sweden, in overtime of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016, in Los Angeles. The Kings won 4-3 in a shootout.

APPLES AND ORANGES

There was a deluge of dissenters on Twitter last night when it was tweeted that the Canucks’ 4-0-1 start is the best in franchise history. Officially, it is the best because no Vancouver team has ever had nine points after five games. But it’s important to remember that a loser point, like the one the Canucks earned against the Kings, did not exist until 2000. And the shootout, with which Vancouver beat Calgary, was implemented only in 2005.

In straight regulation time, the Canucks’ record would be 1-0-4. The 1992 Canucks, the only other Vancouver team to start 4-0, won all those games in 60 minutes.

That 92-93 version of the Canucks was a rising team of young stars and core players in their prime who, one season later, would play for the Stanley Cup. That was really the first golden era for the franchise. No one should think this Canuck team, still in transition after becoming too old and slow, is at the same stage 24 years later.

File: Derek Dorsett #15 of the Vancouver Canucks looks on from the bench during their NHL game against the San Jose Sharks at Rogers Arena February 28, 2016 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

A LOSE-LOSE SITUATION

With Derek Dorsett out due to a shoulder injury suffered Saturday, winger Jack Skille gets back into the lineup tonight and the transition should be seamless. But on defence, Alex Biega and Nikita Tryamkin will miss their sixth straight games as the top six Vancouver defencemen remain healthy and capable.

Biega is 28 years old and in his seventh season of professional hockey. It took him five years just to dip a toe in the NHL pool, so he understands patience and tradecraft and is equipped to handle sitting out.

Tryamkin, however, is only 22. And although he played four seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League, he is new to the NHL and still at the dawn of his development as a player. He is also 6-7 and 265 pounds. He needs to play. Not practise. Play. And until there’s an injury, that probably isn’t happening anytime soon.

The Canucks lured him to Vancouver last spring with an out-clause in his two-way contract that allows the defenceman to bolt home to the KHL if the team sends him to minors. Tryamkin is flexing that clause.

Canuck general manager Jim Benning has approached him about going to the Utica Comets and playing 20-plus minutes a night – even on just a conditioning assignment that comes with a return ticket to the NHL — but Tryamkin has refused. That’s not good for Tryamkin or the Canucks.

Given his mobility and size, and potential to obliterate opponents in front of his net, Tryamkin could be a star in the NHL, a guy who makes many millions. But he has to give himself a chance to become that player.

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